The problem was never the farm
Most African tea is picked fast, machine-crushed into dust, blended anonymous and sold by the kilo at auction. The whole leaf — withered slowly and rolled the orthodox way — can be world-class. It rarely gets the chance, because the auction only pays for volume. The farms were never the problem. The chain was.
What we do differently
highveld buys the whole leaf directly from the people who grow it, pays a price they can live on, and sends 20% of revenue — not profit — from every pack back to their farm. Not a donation; their share. And we show you the receipt: computed per pack, paid on a real schedule, and reconciled in public once a year.
Two farms, by name
We'd rather know two farms well than a continent vaguely. We start with Satemwa Estate in Malawi — the country's only orthodox producer — and Tumoi Teas in Kenya's Nandi Hills, high-grown and home to the rare purple tea. We grow by deepening relationships, not by adding logos.
Where we come from
highveld began the way a lot of good things do — with a cup that surprised us. We're tea people: the kind who notice when a leaf has been treated with care. Somewhere along the way we tasted African orthodox tea — whole leaf, withered slow, nothing like the dust in most teabags — and couldn't believe how good it was, or how rarely it leaves the continent as itself.
Then we learned the other half: how little of what you pay ever reaches the farm. We didn't want to start a charity, and we're wary of brands that "do good" in ways you can't check. We just wanted the tea we'd fallen for to come with a fairer deal — and to be able to prove it. That's the whole company. We started in Eindhoven, ship across the Netherlands with Europe next, and we're keeping it small on purpose: two farms, a handful of teas, and a promise we can actually keep.
[Make it yours: who "we" are — your names and roles — and, if you have one, the moment or place where this clicked for you. A real name and face here is one of the strongest trust signals you can add.]
The promise
- Whole leaf, orthodox — withered slowly and traditionally rolled, not crushed.
- 20% of revenue to the farm — shown on every pack and in the annual Fair Report.
- Living-income floor — 20% is the floor; we pay at least a living-income price.
- Farms by name — Satemwa and Tumoi, with new origins only once the model is proven.